Do You Hear What I Hear?

The noisiest fights in my childhood home were about my father’s high fidelity sound system (stereo wasn’t pioneered until I was in my teens). The Hi-fi was a collection of speakers, from woofer to tweeter, Pa placed in one of the kitchen cupboards built into the interior wall between the kitchen and the living room. The cupboard drawer hid them from the kitchen side and the square grand piano was in front and above so whatever he did there was invisible. The amplifiers and pre-amplifiers were in the bookshelves behind the door between the kitchen and study and the turntable and radio receiver were located in the study. The majority of these components Pa had built himself using Heathkits.

The arguments were not about what was being played or even that it was being played; they were about what Pa called “room volume.” He said, and it was true, that the quality of the reproduction of the original instruments was better at a higher volume. (I suspect that the loss of cupboard space in the kitchen had been included in the arguments in the early days.)

As little as 15 years ago most stereos didn’t do as good a job on the sound at low volumes, I know because I don’t like to listen to music at a high volume and it was almost impossible to find one I could afford that performed adequately for me. (Because of Pa’s great interest in the best possible sound, I’m pretty unforgiving about poor sound with truncated highs and buzzing lows.

This morning someone on one of the Beatles mail-lists I subscribe to posted the URL to an article about tricks to increase the loudness of popular music by messing with it during the process of recording an mixing and the fact that listening to them isn’t good for people.  http://tinyurl.com/26kvz5 I have always disliked loud sounds, as well as heavy odors even if they are pretty ones and it was nice to find out that perhaps I’m not really a complete nervous-Nellie.

Paul McCartney’s new CD has not, I’m sure, been subjected to this process, and the sound quality over my computer with my speakers that are a lot better then the ones usually shipped with a computer, is as expected very good. Even the extreme low notes at the opening of House of Wax (it really sounds like a didgeridoo but may of course be electronically generated) may be distinctly heard and the high harmonics of the electric guitar in the same song are pure and undistorted. It is quite an accomplishment to  have a wild and emphatic guitar solo without either feedback or distortion and I am deeply grateful to whoever is responsible for it.

Reviewing

I have really tried over the years to keep in mind that when someone has decided that they don’t like someone or something, he or she is unlikely to admit it even if they happen to find something about it or him to like or if he or she accidentally does something that they do actually like. It’s entirely to be expected that when Paul McCartney puts out a new album there will be as many opinions as there are people paid (or not paid) to write about music. Somehow the ones who have decided not to like it seem to be just as eager to spread their opinion around as everyone else. The best technique is not to talk about things you dislike and maybe the world will forget about them. That’s the best way; I didn’t say I followed it.

I’m also learning that it’s completely foolish to try to guess who Paul wrote this or that song about. I’ve read a dozen or so reviews of Memory Almost Full today and there’s one guy who thinks the whole album is about how much Paul loves Linda. I think one person or another has named every single song on the album except Dance Tonight as being about Heather Mills. Come to think of it, why on earth did they leave that one out considering that she was on that silly dance show? The truth is for the most part I don’t care who or what Paul thought he was writing about, the question is does the song do it for me?

The second best cheap amusement for the day is reading all the articles (and comments on them) marking the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band. Here the range of opinion isn’t nearly so great: there are those that feel it was both important and great and there are those who thing it was only one of those things or neither. I only have two things to dsay about that: if it’s so unimportant and not great why are we still arguing about it 40 years after the sales receipt went into the trash? The other thought is that my mother taught me to keep an extra around in a brown paper bag, there are some people you just don’t serve the good stuff to.

My opinion of Memory Almost Full? Great, marvelous, exciting, scary, nostalgic, prescient, fun, sad, terrifying and visionary. In other words, I like it a lot. It is quite definitely an album to listen to several times before you start forming an opinion. The arrangements are intricate, layered and full of color and texture. My favorite? House of Wax and then Mr. Bellamy. I’ve always had a weakness for dramatic music. After that I like Feet in the Clouds a lot. I like the way he winds over and under, around and through without quite touching the melody. I’ve liked an awful lot of Paul McCartney songs in my life but I can’t say there are very many I like more then these. He also proves it truly can be done, a wild and free electic guitar solo without feedback or distotion!

The Beatles as Musicians

The Beatles were not showy players. It was a time of singers, not of guitarists or drummers. Only in jazz was the quality of instrumentalists highlighted. While in live performance most rock and roll bands would include instrumental breaks it was more to give the rest of the band and the vocalist a chance to rest then to highlight the playing. The age of the guitar hero waited for Hendricks and Clapton. At the time, only George was actually recognized for his musicianship (frequently among the top ten “jazz guitarists” in the listings) and while as time has gone by both Paul and Ringo’s high reputation with fellow bassists and drummers has become generally known and appreciated. John is, understandably, still seen as the weakest player. In some ways he was but he did perform some notable guitar leads and the high quality of his work as rhythm guitarist seems never to have been adequately acknowledged.

George’s goal seems to have been perfection in the actual playing which he quite frequently achieved. It’s downplayed, indeed barely mentioned, that he was not quick to find licks for a new song and the others, including George Martin, worked with him pretty often. His later conflicts with Paul (which did have a deeper source) evidenced in him resenting any suggestions Paul might make in this regard. Paul obviously didn’t understand why George had become so hostile (exchange in Anthology during Get Back sessions) though from what Paul said you can certainly suppose he was attempting to be diplomatic. Creativity simply doesn’t come easily, or at all, to some people; creativity at the level of John and Paul is extremely rare and sets a standard impossible for others. It certainly isn’t a personal fault to lack somehow the brain connections that support creativity and in fact most humans, including me, do lack it.

Ringo is one off the most modest drummers in a world in which so many are wild extroverts – who are drummers because they want to make the most noise. Ringo saw his job in terms of what he song needed and some of his best work is so soft as to be almost inaudible (Day in The Life). I’m most impressed with the odd, sort of broken beat he uses particularly in a couple of John’s stranger compositions. I strongly suspect he could have come up with something appropriate for Yesterday if it had been necessary.

Paul, of course, took rock and roll bass from the instrument more or less played by the leader’s best friend or the fat wannabe rocker to an important role in the music generally. Taking inspiration from jazz bassists such as Keeter Betts and the piano bass lines of earlier rock and rollers (Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard) he both supported the rhythm and provided a contrast to the lead guitar that has since influenced all sorts of popular music.

Another point showing the level of the Beatles musicianship is the fact that they all played many instruments in addition to their primary. Although Ringo and George were very focused on their primary instrument, they both played piano and other instruments. Paul was the most versatile but all possessed the talent and interest to experiment with many others. The Abbey Road Studios certainly was an advantage there with many instruments available for experimentation. The Beatles level of musicianship may not have been the most important ingredient in their mystique but certainly it would have been difficult to support that mystique without skilled players.